Donnie darko is the strange and surreal story of a brilliant and troubled teenager working through the strange goings on around his life.
Starring Jake Gyllenhall (The day after tommorow) and Jena Malone, this 1988 film is stunningly wierd and will get into your mind.
The effects used in this film are amazingly well done, from showing the life paths of the people in the film in a strange and unique way to the effect of ripples in an invisible wall. Not only do these effects help show how surreal the film is but the use of camera shots also helps show this. In one scene the camera rotates around showing how confused Donnie Darko's life is, and as the camera follows people all around the school you see the odd and yet at the same time normal lives of all these other students.

The plot of Donnie Darko will keep you watching till the end just to understand how all the events come together, The constant plot twists can become confusing but only add to the intensity of the film. Because of this you may need to watch it twice in order to understand the film completely.
At the begining Donnie seems like your typical troubled teen, but as the film continues you see him become darker and you are constantly wondering is what he sees is real or not, even by the end the audience still isn't completely sure if everything they saw was real or not.

The final song in the film is 'Mad world' is a beautiful song, and when you see it with the second to last scene it will send shivers up your spine.
The music in general is a good aspect to the film, with piano pieces playing everynow and again which give a creepy air to the film.

Donnie Darko is a beautiful and deeply physcological film, it will give you chills and is worth putting down as a film to see before you die.

The 1996 Hunchback of notre dame is certainly one of Disneys darker films. Featuring the voices of Tom Hulce (Amadeus), Demi moore, Tony Jay and Kevin Kleine, it is the fantastic tale of Quasimodo, the deformed bellringer.
Although not as dark as Victor Hugos orginal Notre dame de paris, the film still touches on the themes of lust, Jealosy and religious fanaticism. This means that the film is enjoyable for children and adults.
The animation in the film is exceptional and portrays the cathedral of Notre dame in stunning beauty, not only the cathedral but the city of 15th century paris. During the scene where the character of Esmeralda (Demi moore/heidi mellenhauser) is singing 'God help the outcasts' She moves around the cathedral and the audience can see almost every aspect of it, by the end of the song she is standing underneath the huge window and the light shining through shows a beautiful pattern on the floor.

While on the subject of songs, the music in this film is also another great aspect. The composer Alan menken has worked on the musical score for many disney films, and the music in this film is as good as any of his others. However, some of the songs do seem to drag on a bit and perhaps take up too much of the film. None the less the use of latin style hymns in some songs gives a really religious tone to the film.

More than ten years old, This film is as amazing today as it ever has been and is something definatly worth seeing again and again.